Payload
• Douglas Gorman
OwlO Cloud has emerged from stealth with plans to build a European orbital-cloud network under sovereign control. The company is targeting a constellation of 10 spacecraft by 2030; the announcement sets out its goal and timeline, but provides no further program or deployment details.
Commercial Space
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Caltech and Momentus have made progress testing in-space robotic assembly technology aboard a Momentus spacecraft under a DARPA effort. The work aims to enable the construction of very large structures in orbit, a capability that could change how future space systems are built and deployed.
OwlO Cloud has emerged from stealth with plans to build a European orbital-cloud network under sovereign control. The company is targeting a constellation of 10 spacecraft by 2030; the announcement sets out its goal and timeline, but provides no further program or deployment details.
Investors are studying SpaceX’s successful June stock-market debut as a guide to Anthropic’s expected IPO next week. An analysis says Anthropic’s share price in its first weeks of trading may depend more on investors compelled to buy shares than on those choosing to do so.
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Blue Origin is rebuilding Florida launch infrastructure after a May 2026 ground-test accident while developing a larger New Glenn variant alongside its flown 7x2 configuration. Separately, ULA is preparing Vulcan to return to flight carrying 40 Amazon Leo satellites, with redesigned booster nozzles and the first launch in a planned 38-mission partnership.
French space company Gama has raised €15 million ($16.6 million) to advance large deployable solar arrays, after pivoting from solar-sail development. The funding marks a shift in the company’s focus toward power-generation technology for spacecraft.
The FAA has approved Dream Chaser for reentry, a regulatory step for Sierra Space’s spaceplane. Its first mission is planned to include a simulated berthing with the International Space Station, testing a key part of the vehicle’s intended cargo-delivery mission.
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The prospect of robotic spacecraft extracting valuable materials from asteroids is moving, slowly, from science fiction toward reality. A future influx of asteroid-derived platinum could disrupt the metal’s market, while the article frames that outcome as beneficial for Earth.
Newly elected Democrats are expected to challenge President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile shield and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, according to the article. The focus puts both a major defense initiative and a prominent commercial space company on the incoming Congress’s political agenda, though the article gives no details on specific actions.
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